Your small fortune: 2p coins that could be worth 3p each

The adage "take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves" is truer than ever after soaring copper prices have inflated the values of 2p and 1p pieces.

As international markets registered an all-time high for copper, the scrap value of coins in your pocket could now be worth 50 per cent more than their face value.

But before anyone cracks open their piggy banks and rushes to the nearest smelting works, a few words of caution. This phenomenon applies only to 2p and 1p pieces minted before 1992 when each coin contained 97 per cent copper. The Royal Mint, perhaps anticipating rises in the metals normally used, switched to copper-plated steel. This explains why some "coppers" are magnetic and others not.

A ton of 2p coins (145,000) has a face value of £2,900. The metal at current prices on the open market could turn in a handsome profit of at least £1,500.

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However, reaping the benefit would be hard work, not to say risky. It is an offence to deface a coin of the realm. Anyone capable of smelting them would certainly charge for the service. And you would have to check a lot of pennies to ensure they were the right pre-1992 vintage.

The Royal Mint says latest available figures show there are 6,339 million 2p coins in circulation. Of those some 3,788 million have been issued since 1992. That leaves an approximate 2,551 million still out there. But by the time you have got your first ton, prices may well have dropped.

"The practicalities involved in melting down such huge quantities of coins would seem to us to make it a highly improbable task for the average consumer," said a spokesman for the Royal Mint.

It is rare that a coin's intrinsic value outstrips its face value. The £1 coin has a scrap value of roughly 5p, the £2 coin around 8p. The 50p at 4p is worth less than the 20p, at 5p.